Jay Chou's new album blends art and pop

Pop icon Jay Chou released his 16th album, Children of the Sun, digitally on Wednesday. Featuring 13 tracks, the album quickly topped this year's digital album sales charts across major music platforms on the Chinese mainland.

The music video for the album's title track runs 6 minutes and 58 seconds and weaves a suspenseful, darkly comic narrative through 30 world-famous artworks.

Among them are Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, Gustav Klimt's The Kiss, Vincent Willem van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat, and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

With meticulous makeup, art direction, props, lighting and special effects, the video re-creates iconic scenes from the paintings as a tribute to these timeless masterpieces.

The music video was shot in Paris and Taipei over a span of two years and three months.

Musically, the title track blends rock and classical elements, merging Western art masterpieces and Gothic aesthetics with pop music.

The lyrics, written by Chou's longtime collaborator Vincent Fang, center on the theme of confronting and overcoming the darkness within.

As Chou himself notes, everyone carries a shadow side. What matters is how we control it, whether to live with it or overcome it.

Another track, My Daughter, Your Highness, is dedicated to Chou's youngest daughter, Jacinda. With witty lyrics and a cheerful melody, the song captures Chou's comically chaotic moments as a hands-on father.

Family has long been a source of inspiration in Chou's music.

Previously, he turned a random melody that his eldest daughter, Hathaway, casually played on a toy keyboard into the single Lover from a Previous Life, which was included in his 14th album, Jay Chou's Bedtime Stories, released in 2016.

In his previous album, Greatest Works of Art, he included Pink Ocean, a song written for his second son, Romeo.

Released in the early hours of March 25, the new album drew strong anticipation, with many fans staying up late for its debut.

Among the 13 singles, the rap tracks Sicily and Gold Rush Town, along with the Chinese-style song The Girl from Hunan and the love song The Day It Rained, have received particular praise.

The album had sold around 1.9 million copies on QQ Music, a major music platform in the Chinese mainland.

Data show that Chou's 15th album, Greatest Works of Art, released in 2022, remains the top-selling digital album of all time, with 7.29 million copies sold.